Synduality Echo of Ada review

pcgamer.com:

Synduality Echo of Ada is one of those games that feels custom-made for me. A third-person mech action game that takes the extraction shooter formula and twists it into something more social and accessible, with an unusual structure hiding a wealth of optional story tied into a recent anime series. It aims high, but an interesting concept can only take you so far, and the end results here feels like three half-finished games stapled together.

I had pockets of fun with Synduality. Of the 20-plus hours I’ve clocked so far, the first 15 were a compelling journey of discovery. From choosing and customizing my first Magus (the android co-pilot that provides constant chatter and guidance in and out of the mech cockpit), to my first tentative forays into the post-apocalyptic wastes, to scavenging enough work gloves to clean the weeds out of my doer-upper mech hangar, all the way to my first (accidental) PvP encounters in the field, I thought it was all building to something. But Synduality never gets better than its opening hours.

What is it? A mech-based extraction shooter and mid-tier anime tie-in
Release date: January 23, 2025
Expect to pay: £35 / $40 up to £85 / $100
Developer: Game Studio Inc.
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Reviewed on: Windows 11, i9-13900k, Nvidia RTX 4090, 64GB DDR5 RAM
Steam Deck: Unsupported
Multiplayer?: Yes
Link: Official site

Synduality is (at least initially) an extraction shooter, inspired by the likes of Escape From Tarkov, but in lightweight mechs that remind me a bit of Hawken’s twitchy yet streamlined rumbling robots. You explore a hostile wasteland full of monsters and NPC bandits, collect loot, then try to bring it home to sell or craft into useful upgrades for your base. Normally it’s a cutthroat genre that players treat as a high-stakes deathmatch where everyone’s risking their best gear for a slight advantage over the competition. But Synduality aims to ease newcomers into the action by making co-op (albeit with